Music has always been a large part of my life. After starting piano lessons at the age of 6, I joined the Elgin Children's Chorus, advancing to their top choir in a few short years. In high school I participated in the marching band, wind symphony, and orchestra on flute, jazz band on piano, and varsity and jazz choirs. I was selected for District choir two years and All-State choir my senior year.
It was at Ohio Northern that I became drawn to accompanying. I participated as a rehearsal accompanist for almost every show in my tenure there, in addition to playing in the orchestra for a number of them. I accompanied for many lessons and recitals, as well as taking voice lessons myself. The beginning of my senior year I spent a semester abroad in Tallinn, Estonia studying at the Eesti Muusika ja Teatriakadeemia under the tutelage of Lauri Vainmäa. The following semester I graduated cum laude.
At the University of Illinois, I was granted an Accompanying Assistantship and worked with voice, violin, oboe, and saxophone studios, as well as the opera studio. The following year I became an opera assistant, accompanying rehearsals for Le Nozze di Figaro, South Pacific, and Albert Herring. I collaborated on several recitals and gave two of my own, two song cycles by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin.
Upon graduation, I spent part of my summer as an apprentice coach for Sugar Creek Symphony & Song's production of Le Nozze di Figaro. I then moved to Chicago and spent time working with local companies, including Petite Opera and Northshore Opera Hour, accompanying extensively for voice studios at the Metropolis School for Performing Arts in Arlington Heights, and teaching for the British School of Music in Chicago. For the past three years I have also worked as a counselor/instructor for J ACE J Music's Summer Rock & Roll camp.
I am currently in my second and last year at CCPA, where I accompaniy for rehearsals for most opera program productions. In conjunction with CCPA I am a Young Artist Apprentice Coach at Chicago Opera Theater, where I have worked on Shostakovich's
Moscow, Cheryomushki, Handel's
Teseo, and Mozart's
The Magic Flute.